Can You Guilt Someone Into Not Pirating Software?

from the probably-worth-a-shot dept

A bunch of folks have been submitting this story about USB Overdrive X's response to anyone who uses a pirated key to use their software. Basically, the company allows you to go ahead, but tells you (in a very human voice) that it knows it's a pirated code, and you should be ashamed of yourself: It's definitely a much better strategy than annoying plenty of users (even legit ones) or threatening to sue or anything. And, I have no doubt that it's probably even effective on the margins among a few folks who appreciate being treated at least somewhat as a human, rather than a criminal. But, the company is still going to face this issue long term, and it seems like a better solution is to figure out business models that don't view such sharing as piracy, but a way to further extend a business.

Filed Under: guilty, piracy, shame, software

UK DVD, CD Retailers Give More Bogus Predictions About Lost Jobs Due To Piracy

from the buggy-whips dept

It appears that the latest group to whine and complain about totally bogus "losses" from piracy are CD and DVD retailers in the UK, who have commissioned their own study claiming that 30,000 jobs may be lost to piracy. This is from the UK's Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), though the group doesn't seem to make any indication of its methodology (its own website doesn't even list the study at this point). However, from what's in the article, it certainly sounds like the usual tricks for presenting bogus stats on piracy. It only counts the changes in one direction, ignores the fact that the shift (not loss) in jobs is due to a variety of factors that go well beyond "piracy," and ignores all of the new jobs created due to the shift to digital distribution of content. But, of course, that doesn't make for nearly as interesting a story... especially when the ERA is teaming up with a bunch of famous actors to whine about how they are too incompetent to learn how to adapt to the changing market. If these folks ran the buggy whip industry a century ago, we'd all still be driving around in horse drawn carriages. Markets change, and it creates new opportunities. Stop whining about the the way things used to be, and focus on taking advantage of all of those new opportunities.

Filed Under: bogus stats, job loss, piracy, retailers

Piracy Saves Another Lost Video

from the and-yet-again dept

We've talked about how "piracy" ended up saving the "lost" ending to the movie Little Shop of Horrors, and now it looks like something similar has happened over in the UK. As a bunch of readers have sent in, apparently the BBC, in an effort to save archival space, had gotten rid of some old television shows. In one case, the BBC had discarded both the color version of a show and the audio track, but the show's presenter had made his own audio recordings and, when synched up with the TV show -- and then colorized -- the BBC could bring it back close to what it once was. Yet, as TorrentFreak notes, this was basically "pirated" audio. But, once again, such things are turning out to be quite useful as an alternative for storage.

Filed Under: lost video, piracy
Companies: bbc

Spore's DRM So Effective It Was The Most Downloaded Game Of The Year

from the nice-work,-EA dept

It never really made sense for EA to be so insistent on having draconian DRM on games. Before the company even launched Spore people made it quite clear the plan would backfire, but EA went forward with it anyway, creating a PR nightmare. And all for what? Turns out (not surprisingly) the DRM didn't do squat to stop unauthorized file sharing. Spore has now been declared the most downloaded video game of the year. And, even though the year's not over, no other game is going to catch up. And, it's worth noting, the game only launched in October, so this is only over a couple of months. In other words, EA's "antipiracy strategy" backfired almost completely. The company got a huge PR blackeye which probably only encouraged more people to download the game via file sharing. Can someone explain, again, why any company thinks DRM works?

Filed Under: downloads, drm, piracy, securom, spore, video games
Companies: ea

Should DVD Counterfeiters Fear Police Or The Internet More?

from the just-saying... dept

A bunch of people have sent in this story about UK Intellectual Property Minister, David Lammy claiming that by the 2012 Olympics, London will be a "fake-free zone" as he begins to crackdown on counterfeit DVD sellers. Not surprisingly, this move involved a variety of public and private parties, including the Motion Picture Association, UK Film Council, UK Intellectual Property Office, Federation Against Copyright Theft, London Councils, Trading Standards and the London police. Of course, the whole thing seems sort of yawn inducing. For a few years now, there have been stories noting that internet file sharing has been putting the counterfeit street sellers out of business. And, over the course of the next four years, you have to imagine that pace is only going to accelerate. So, congrats, David Lammy, for spending taxpayer money on stomping out something that was naturally dying out anyway.

Filed Under: counterfeiting, dvds, london, olympics, piracy

Dark Knight... Both Most Pirated And Highest Earning Movie

from the what-does-that-tell-you? dept

You may recall when The Dark Knight opened, we pointed out that its record breaking opening was because movie makers created a movie that people wanted to see in a theater. The fact that parts of the movie were designed for IMAX theaters drove many people to pay even more (or even see the movie multiple times) in order to experience the IMAX version, which simply can't be replicated at home. As we pointed out, this was a perfect example of how the movie studios could compete with free. In fact, in such a scenario, you could even make the argument that the more people saw the movie in download format, the more willing they would be to go pay to see the IMAX version, to get the full experience.

However, it was stunning to hear movie industry execs then claim that the reason the movie was so successful was because of their anti-piracy efforts. That was clearly untrue at the time, and now Parker Mason alerts us to the fact that The Dark Knight was not just the biggest grossing film, but also the most pirated film of the year. Of course, if you believed the studio execs, that would be impossible. After all, if so many people are downloading the movie, then clearly they're "stealing" from the industry and would never go see the movie. But, seeing that the movie made record profits, it seems to show that's simply incorrect. Many people, reasonably, viewed the download as marketing, convincing them to go see the movie in the theaters.

Filed Under: batman, dark knight, movies, mpaa, piracy

Video Game Without DRM Has Piracy Rates About The Same As DRM'd Games

from the so-why-bother? dept

Reader SteveD sent in this story a week ago, but I just got around to looking at the details. Apparently the makers of the video game World of Goo, which (as mentioned) was released without DRM, have roughly calculated the rate of piracy on the game to be about 90%. The calculation is certainly a rough one, and people can quibble with the number, but the basic reasoning seems sound. A lot of folks focused on that 90% number, but didn't pay as much attention to the more important comparison: how this compared to a DRM'd game. The game makers noted that it had almost no difference compared to another game released with DRM, showing that adding the DRM did absolutely nothing to prevent piracy. So why do video game companies keep insisting they need DRM?

Filed Under: drm, piracy, world of goo

Music Industry Squanders $69 Billion Worth Of Free Promotions In 2007

from the got-your-attention? dept

Over the years, we've seen so many bogus reports on the supposed "losses" to various industries due to unauthorized file sharing, that it's about time the story was flipped. Reader SteveD writes in to point out the latest research, claiming that in 2007, the dollar value of all unauthorized music file sharing was $69 billion. The research company that put out the number does clearly state that those numbers are not lost revenue (good), but then goes on to still claim that this shows how damaging unauthorized file sharing is for the industry:

"A $69 billion figure is staggering to contemplate, but it effectively illustrates the impact of piracy on the music industry."

Actually, I disagree. I don't think it shows the "impact" at all. If anything, you could flip this around (as I did in the title) and use it to show how much goodwill and free publicity provided by fans the industry squandered by trying to turn those fans into criminals, rather than learning to embrace that free labor in a business model that took advantage of all of that free promotion. Sure, the headline is an exaggeration, but it's no more of an exaggeration than claiming that the $69 billion represents the extent of any problem. If there's a problem, it's in the fact that so many folks in and around the industry view this as a problem rather than a huge opportunity and resource.

Filed Under: amount, costs, music industry, piracy

Warner Bros. Make Up Your Mind: Are You Competing With Piracy Or Not?

from the mixed-messages dept

It really was just last week that we were somewhat impressed that movie studio Warner Bros. recognized that it needed to compete with piracy in China, and was doing so by offering super cheap movie downloads there. However, apparently that strategy isn't universal across Warner Bros., because, as a few readers have alerted us, the studio is acting in quite a different way in neighboring Korea. Rather than compete, Warner Bros., is apparently throwing in the towel and pulling out of Korea entirely.

To be honest, I'm quite confused as to how the same company could make both of those decisions in the course of a single week. Perhaps the situations are really different between China and Korea (though, I doubt it), but it's difficult to see why it would make sense to try to compete against widespread piracy in one country, and then insist it was impossible to do the same thing in another country.

Filed Under: china, dvds, korea, movies, piracy
Companies: warner bros.

Italian Authors Want A 'You Must Be A Pirate' Tax On All DSL Connections

from the you're-a-criminal! dept

Plenty of countries have different types of "blank media" levies, which act as something of a "you must be a criminal!" tax. Basically, industries have convinced governments to force consumers to pay a lot more, on the assumption that they're all criminals, and rather than pushing the industries to innovate new business models, they just get to collect that "tax." In the US, the RIAA has suggested such a tax should be added to broadband connections, though there seems little chance of that happening any time soon.

However, Sean alerts us to an effort under way in Italy to do exactly that. Apparently the Society of Authors and Editors has asked the government to impose a tax on all DSL connections (the article's in Italian, but Google has a decent translation). Hopefully this is one of those outlandish proposals that goes nowhere, but it's worth paying attention when these sorts of proposals are being pushed, as they have the inevitable tendency to spread.

Filed Under: criminals, dsl, italy, piracy, tax